- Aug 21, 2008
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- 113
I'll say this, and I don't specifically want to put words in anyone's mouth and I know this isn't exactly ArmWhip's point here but, it needs to be said I think. I don't believe wrist snaps automatically mean the person is going to pitch H/E. Not everyone who does them is a H/E disciple. HOWEVER, it does seem to be a more common thing with H/E pitchers. H/E coaches probably aren't spending a lot of time reading this forum, or else I doubt they'd be still teaching H/E. So, in the majority of cases, when I see a kid doing wrist flips, I have a pretty good idea of what she's doing to do when she throws a ball. Again, this is the majority not everyone. I know a pitching coach here in Omaha where I live, a friend of mine who was also a pretty good pitcher in his day and someone I've known for 30 years, I know he doesn't teach H/E mechanics. But he also doesn't seem to care when his pitchers warm up doing wrist flips. Personally, I don't allow my students to do them because I feel it's creating or reinforcing bad muscle memory that we're going to try avoiding when she pitches. I highly doubt he teaches girls to do them, he probably just lets them do it because they saw others doing it or they learned it from another coach. I've never asked him why he allows it, maybe I will do that next time we go for wings/beers. So don't make the mistake of automatically thinking someone will pitch H/E if you see wrist flips, odds are they will throw that way but it's not 100%. Kind of like what my grandmother used to say: All poodles are dogs, but not all dogs are poodles.So why is the instructor teaching wrist snaps when the student isn't snapping her wrist when she pitches? She should be teaching internal rotation. Why would you teach one way and allow your student to pitch a different way? It seems to me that the student isn't doing it the way the instructor teaches and the instructor doesn't know the difference.
I think it's important to say too: the wrist does snap when we pitch. But it needs to snap AFTER the elbow! Elbow, wrist, then fingers. The problem with wrist snaps is, it teaches the locked arm and no elbow snap/whip. A lot of people think it's all in the wrist. When actually, it's should be in the elbow, wrist and fingers. IMO.